I just love this video. And I'm very much inclined to think it is him and I would hate to be so cynical as to assume everything awesome like this was staged. Obviously it was edited for timing/clarity, but it's definitely him. My middle-class family had a video camera starting about, oh 23 years ago, so I don't think it's that unusual. Video quality looks about the same as our old ones. Plus the timeline at the beginning that shows him growing up with video clips would be very difficult to fake. Most convincingly of all, this video was on the front page of reddit yesterday and lord knows that the notorious cynics over there would have quickly rooted out any clues of it being faked, if it was -- and they didn't.

I have video I made of my sons when they were about 6 and 4 where I asked them to talk to their "future selves."

It took a while to get them to understand what I was talking about, but I got at least something of an answer.

The cool thing about Jeremiah McDonald is that he (apparently) got the idea on his own as a kid.

As a child myself, I often thought about my "future self" as a person I could talk to both in terms of trying to find out whether I'd been true to my own values and aspirations and in terms of what that person would want from me, who had these extraordinary powers to affect what life would be for her.

You know, childish questions are considered to be childish for a reason. Why do I have to answer questions made from my 12 year old self, who had such a weak grasp of reality? Why the obsession of fulfilling your childish dreams as an adult, and why do we consider ourselves failures if we do not fulfill such dreams?

If anything, I would like to record a video of myself addressing my 12 year old self so maybe he can do a better job with my past than he did. The sad thing is that I have to live with the consequenses of that past self, he does not. But I take satisfaction in knowing that he will. Dammit.

Here it is performed by Harold Pinter, with Spanish subtitles, preceded by an interview (actual performance starts at 7:40). If you prefer to watch without subtitles, here's Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5.

Here it is performed by Patrick Magee (the original Krapp from the 50s, this performance recorded in the 70s).

Here it is performed by Rick Cluchey (based on the original staging by Beckett).

A lot of people had a video camera 20 years ago. I wish I had my old video from when I was a 7th-grader, but I suspect it would make me as miserable as the original public playback did back then. (It was a school thing and they recorded a debate. I winced every time I said "um" and have avoided video ever since - even doing my best to avoid my video high school yearbook.)

I like the part where his kid self tweaks in a male kidly way and he looks embarrassed.